Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Just looking for an honest answer!

I am an American...raised a Jew, born God knows what...my father served in WWII, my mother was a wife and mother...I love my brother, although he is slightly goofy...in other words, for many people, I am the devil incarnate...the money grabbing shyster...the media mogul controlling everything...wealthy beyond your dreams...and I own all the newspapers...but actually, I am poor-ish, employed  at minimum wage...previously homeless...atheist...irreverent fuck and free thinker (ok...maybe still the devil incarnate). But what I am...what I have become...is the product of being American. My life spans Eisenhower to Trump...my father was my hero...I am firmly entrenched in the middle class...and I cherish my constitutional right to speak my mind. So, while I may not be normal, I am the standard model American. I am grateful for the life I have lived, the opportunities available to me and the freedom to become.

All that being said, WTF, America?

No need to answer! For those of you who have ever read anything I've written, you may have noticed that I am prone to hyperbole. But not this day! Today, I am going to keep it simple, and try to be inclusive of all opinion. In fact, if I ask any questions in this post, I beg you to respond...to offer your objections to my beliefs, so that I may understand them, because I don't. I am afraid of what America has become, and I pray that someone can offer me any response that I might deem reasonable. Anyway, let me begin.

White men must be stupid, and by that, I mean dumber than I thought possible. White male Americans elected Donald Trump. While that, in itself, is abhorrent, it is only the tip of the iceberg. They also elected Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, seem to be perfectly ok with Steve Bannon, a white nationalist with power input on national security and foreign policy, will embrace Betsy DeVos and her education for profit schemes...and these are the educated white males. The really stupid ones, the ones who respond to actual facts with statements like, "Quit whining, you liberal fag pansy! Your bitch lost"...the ones who believe that America is broken because of political correctness and the technological leaps we have made that cost them their jobs...the ones who cant see that the world is changing, and that no matter what he promises, Trump cant bring back Ozzie and Harriet. And I don't want to ignore all the other stupid people, the ones that believe America is still a democracy, that we fight wars to protect our freedoms, and believe that there is some sort of difference between modern democrats and republicans.

So, this post has been building for quite some time now, and I'm starting to realize that I might need 1000 pages to say what I want. So, I think what I am going to do is recount some of the facts I have offered in the past, along with a few new ones. Just seems simpler.

Donald Trump lies. Even if you only made it through kindergarten, you know that alternative facts are lies. Everything else he has said or done is based on these lies, so they are of secondary importance. And by the way, if you respond, please do not insult your own intelligence by claiming the mainstream media is to blame. I will attempt to help you here. The mainstream media reports what it is told. While it is true that they often do not attempt to fill in the missing pieces of information, that they resultantly offer an incomplete picture, what they report, if not true, is the result of incorrect information that they are supplied. There is almost no way to know anything anymore, because we are seldom given all the facts...and by that I mean facts. Facts are withheld from the public for two reasons only...1. because they damage the claim of the supplier, or 2. because we are too stupid to understand them. An example of this might be the mainstream press claiming that Ben Carson is brain dead, and Trump responding that there is no one more qualified to be the Secretary of HUD. I mean, how can you know whats true. To summarize, Donald Trump may be a misogynist, a bigot, a nazi, a profiteering warmonger, but none of that matters because he is completely untrustworthy. Therefore, he should not be president.

OK! First Question: In the above paragraph, what is not true?

There are more people in a single US carrier group than there are in the US diplomatic corps. Also, the US maintains over 800 military installations throughout the world. I am sure that you are also aware that everyone from Eisenhower to me, and all Halliburton employees in between, has acknowledged that wars are fought for profit, without regard for loss of life. This can be summed up by saying that wars are not fought to protect your freedom, but rather to diminish it, by placing all economic power in the hands of the insiders in the corporatocracy. Or, to put it another way, the United States is a militaristic colonial empire seeing to control all economic activity in the world, hence making 1% of us the wealthiest bunch of assholes on earth. and that is what your kids die for...boo rah! (Aside: the next 4 countries, including Russia, have 30 military installations beyond their borders combined) Now, Trump may not be the brightest bulb on the tree, but do you think he's figured this out?

The powers that be have already decided that globalism is the key to the world's economic future. I have stated in the past that the key to our survival is the shrinking of our communities; that we cannot thrive in the population density of our current communities. The truth, as I see it, is that cities diminish the value of the individual; diminish the volume of each voice. It behooves the globalist to silence the individual, lest others listen. Cities are the quarantine wards for those diseased with thoughts of protest. Cities are where the most police are concentrated. As to the truth. Make America Great Again is a slogan designed to assuage the unheard masses; designed to empower the forsaken of society; designed to create a satisfying illusion of better. The uninformed will believe and be silent. Their anger will simply be quieter when they still have no one listening. (And just to be clear, some of those people deserve to be ignored, unheeded, because they are just plain evil, despite being courted in our most recent election)

I remember how I felt, sitting in Mr. Tardiff's math class, when JFK died. I really did wonder why bad things happened to good people, but I didn't start hating everyone named Oswald. I still cling to the things I learned, true or not, of Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King...of the constitution...of equality for all...of the rights given to all free men...of the righteousness of doing your best...of working hard. Those rights, those paragons of a better world are currently threatened from within our country, not from without. I continue to believe in the possibility of a better world. I am fine with leaders, but I am not fine with being led. I believe that the greatest attribute of a free man is his ability to discern the truth; his refusal to ever swallow the truth being thrust upon him. We Americans, are currently in the midst of our first vehement, propagandist shitstorm. We are being overloaded, day after day, with things we know to be wrong, yet we are told they are true, and far too many of us are actually believing it. America being great has always been because of the basic truths we always believed in; sticking up for the little guy, doing the right thing, fighting injustice. We may not have always jumped on the bandwagon right away, but we have always arrived.

It is time for all Americans to sit quietly, and ask themselves, what kind of American they want to be. I know there are many who will choose the KKK, or the neo-Nazi, or the victim thing. It is my opinion, that if you voted for Trump, you are aligning yourself with bigots, wackos, and Nazis. The man wants to be an autocrat, a dictator, and will never understand why most people dislike him so much. This is not sore loser stuff. I am proud to be a liberal, which is why I will never label myself a democrat or a republican. I am proud to believe in democratic socialism, because I, unlike many of you, am not afraid of the word 'socialism'. I am proud to advocate for the elimination of national borders and national identities. I am happy and proud to share what I have with those that don't have. I am proud that there are churches, and temples, and mosques in this country. I am proud of the tolerance and acceptance this country has held up to the world as a beacon of righteousness. I am proud every time my country does the right thing. And I am proud to speak up, and ask, "What were you thinking, America?